Hustle Kings Review

Touch some billiards.

A romance surrounds the idea of walking into a smoky pool hall, giving a nod to some high-roller cleaning the tables, and systematically emptying their wallet. That's the atmosphere Hustle Kings attempts to conjure, and to a certain extent it succeeds. Hustle Kings delivers one of the best virtual pool experiences out there, but it's not without problems.

It's pool. That's going to sway your interest in Hustle Kings from the start. Though the range of billiards available, from straight 8-Ball to jumping trick shots, adds a ton of challenge and variety to the standard pool experience. Hustle Kings originally came to PSN in early 2010, but Vita gets some updated controls that generally work well. While Hustle Kings ignores the back touchpad, every shot requires front touch controls to either keep your cue steady or simply pull back on the strength of the shot. Swiping a finger side to side allows you to change the angle of the shot (replaceable with the left stick), and holding down circle lets you fine tune any shot. But for a right-handed player, holding down circle while adjusting the cue with a left finger is awkward, and that makes the joystick option the more appealing control scheme.

Three different camera modes provide the best angle to pick shots, but the ball-cam actually hinders precision. While the variety and difficulty of trick shots make for tough options, the process of lining up jump shots and curves becomes an absolute chore, because both the normal camera and the top-down camera don't reflect the angle of attack. Thus, to see how high the cue ball is going to jump, you have to switch to the ball-cam -- but you can't adjust your shot from this perspective. So to get the perfect jump shot, you must perform a juggling act of switching cameras, making slight adjustments, changing cameras again, and checking the trajectory. The non-modifiable ball-cam does a great job of using the Vita's accelerometer to move the camera around to check out your surroundings, but a terrible job finessing any given trick shot.

There's an odd chalk mechanic at play in Hustle Kings, in which every few shots Hustle Kings reminds you that you need to chalk your cue, or you might lose accuracy. But there's really no bonus here, as the reminder is constant, not leaving omission to chance. In fact, it only serves as a reminder that there's a real-money shop to buy special chalks to aid in accuracy and power. This micro-transaction model is common in mobile games, but executed poorly here. While you earn in-game currency (HKC) through wins and sinking balls, the Hustle Kings store's purchasable items differ from the PSN store, meaning you can't earn gameplay bonuses through skill alone, just cash.

The floating cue, hovering over every shot, marks inconsistent spatial awareness. While rotating the stick around the cue ball, the cue dips through other balls, slides against (and through) the cushions in odd ways, and generally doesn't fit into the environment. Additionally, the devoid-of-life settings kill any sense of immersion, as the floating stick is the only moving element (outside of the balls).

The AI is tough and won't hold back. Once you steamroll through the first few matches and up the difficulty, Hustle Kings stops holding your hand. With aim assist turned down, nailing the perfect shot feels insurmountable, but Hustle Kings forces the player to improve rather than coming down to their level. That isn't to say the AI won't pull off some odd moves themselves. During one three-player match of Cutthroat, I scratched on the break – classy, I know – and then each AI player decided to re-rack and subsequently scratch both their attempts at breaking too. It seemed like a fluke until the same issue happened on two additional occasions.

Lookin' shiny.

When you take your skills online, things change. Hustle Kings operates by opening up room to chat and hang out in, and where you can bet your hard earned currency (in-game bucks, not real money) against other folks online. I experienced connectivity problems while connected to a full-bar WiFi connection, dropping out of several matches. Once in, the flow of the game progressed smoothly; but features like cross-platform play matter less when it's tough to even connect.

Hustle Kings' music is strangely off-putting; not because it's bad, but because the eclectic mix of jazz, techno, rap, and more run together in a never-ending playlist. It's jarring to hear a smooth saxophone transition into a thumping beat, all while peering around and seeing the hot-club surroundings full of bars, fish tanks, and no people.

The Verdict

It’s hard to deny the value of buying a pool game on Vita and getting its PlayStation 3 counterpart as an added bonus. And graphically, Hustle Kings looks really nice. So despite the odd musical choices, spooky floating cue, bad connectivity, and annoying precision camera, Hustle Kings is still a good game.

Peter writes for IGN's Xbox 360 team but digs handheld games. You can follow him on Twitter and MyIGN.